SINGAPORE: A foreign controversy, over a set of proposed international guidelines on sex education, threatens to reignite the debate that raged just six months ago over Singapore's own sexuality education programme in schools.
The guidelines, scheduled to be released by UNESCO next week, are
aimed at reducing HIV infections among the young, and will be
distributed to education ministries and school systems around the
world.
But an earlier draft issued in June was attacked by conservative
and religious groups, mainly in the United States, for recommending
discussions of homosexuality, describing sexual abstinence as "only one
of a range of choices available to young people" – and even suggesting
a discussion of masturbation with children as young as five, reported
the New York Times.
When contacted by TODAY, a Ministry of Education (MOE) spokeswoman
said: "We will be studying the revised guidelines to see how useful and
relevant they are to the current review of Sexuality Education in our
schools."
Two civil society groups expressed contrasting views.
Ms Dana Lam, president of the Association of Women for Action and
Research (AWARE), felt UNESCO's guidelines affirmed AWARE's own
Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) programme, which was suspended
by the MOE in May.
Ms Lam said the UNESCO guidelines, which took an "evidence-informed
and rights-based" approach, offered "a sound, comprehensive approach to
sexuality education".
The emphasis "on relationships, values, attitudes, culture, human
development, sexual and reproductive health exactly matches the
emphasis" in AWARE's CSE programme, she added.
The latter was suspended after parents objected to the programme's
explicit content, and the MOE found it conveyed messages "which could
promote homosexuality or suggest approval of pre-marital sex".
Going forward, the ministry signalled that sexuality education should
"adhere to social norms and values of our mainstream society"; while
Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said it should encourage heterosexual
married couples to have healthy relationships and stable families.
Focus on the Family's senior vice-president, Mrs Chong Cheh Hoon, was opposed to the UNESCO guidelines.
Apart from questioning their US-centrism and bias, she found some of
the content "highly inappropriate", such as teaching children aged nine
to 12 about basic contraception.
"This is like telling our kids not to smoke and yet providing them with cigarette filters," she said.
In the material recommended for ages 12 to 15, the guidelines
advise the youth to practise safe and consensual sex "if sexually
active". But, Mrs Chong countered, this was inconsistent messaging –
since countries like Singapore have statutory rape laws covering those
up to age 14.
UNESCO experts have been working on the guidelines for two years,
reportedly drawing on more than 80 studies of sex education. But
conservative flak has already caused one of the project's key
participating agencies, the United Nations Population Fund, to pull
back, said NYT.
UNESCO has defended its guidelines as "evidence-informed and
rights-based". Its guidelines also argue that sex education helps to
delay the onset of sexual activity, reduce the number of sexual
partners and unprotected sex.
"In the absence of a vaccine for AIDS, education is the only
vaccine we have," said Mr Mark Richmond, UNESCO's global coordinator
for HIV and AIDS.
He added that just 40 per cent of youth aged 15 to 24 "have accurate knowledge" of how the disease is transmitted.
- TODAY/so